The Western media’s response to Russia’s law banning gay propaganda among minors is “heavy-handed”, members of Sochi’s gay community have told RT. They worry excessive media attention may lead to Russian society blaming them for “spoiling the Olympics.”

Russia’s legislation banning so-called homosexual propaganda
among minors has dominated the world’s press in the run up to the
Sochi winter Olympics. LGBT communities throughout the world have
decried the law as discriminatory and called for a boycott on
this year’s Olympics.

The Russian government has sought to allay fears that visitors to
Olympics in Sochi will be discriminated against, pledging the law
will not apply to guests and participants during the Games.
However, members of the LGBT and rights groups have criticized
the Olympic Committee for not doing more to force the Russian
government to repeal the law.

Meanwhile in Sochi, members of the LGBT community have voiced
concerns that western media coverage of the law may have a
negative effect on gay people in Russia.

“I think it's really bad, it negatively affects gay Russian
people, because society blames them for spoiling the
Olympics,” said the owner of one of Sochi’s gay clubs,
Andrey Tanychev, to RT correspondent Martyn Andrews. Stressing
that he does not agree with the law, Tanychev said the gay
community in Russia has largely been unaffected by the new
legislation.

Both he and his partner believe that the handling and publicity
of the law by the Western press has been “heavy-handed.”
Campaigners against the legislation claim that the law has led to
an increase in attacks on members of the LGBT community in
Russia.

Answering questions regarding the law, Russian President Vladimir
Putin said that none of the guests in Sochi would have any
problems and members of the LGBT community were
“welcome” at the Olympics.

“People have different sexual orientation. We would welcome
all athletes and all guests at the Olympics,” said the
President at a press conference in January. He added that he
would not like the Games in Sochi to be “marred by
politics.”

Members of Russia’s Orthodox Church – which advocates the bill –
have made calls to further legislate against homosexual
minorities and reintroduce criminal liability for homosexuality.
Putin assured the state was separate from the Church and no such
legislation would be passed.

Russia remains a largely conservative country, with the majority
of the population fostering homophobic views. In a Levada Public
Opinion Center poll around 85 percent of adult Russians said they
were strongly against a law that would allow same-sex marriage,
and 87 percent said they opposed the idea of holding regular gay
pride events in their cities.